Washington, D.C., gun owners would be able to keep weapons in their homes, loaded and without trigger locks, for “immediate self-defense” under legislation being introduced today by D.C. Council Judiciary Committee chairman Phil Mendelson, the Washington Post reports. The bill would repeal the city’s 32-year-old ban on handguns, which was struck down last week by the U.S. Supreme Court, 5 to 4.
The legislation would require a ballistics record for registered handguns and a waiting period for registration. The length of the waiting period would be determined by the D.C. police chief. Lawyer Alan Gura, who successfully argued against the handgun ban before the Supreme Court, said the waiting period for legal firearms — rifles and shotguns — is already “onerous and kind of odd.” An instant background check should be incorporated into the city’s new laws, he said. Gura is concerned about the city’s decision to continue a ban on semiautomatic weapons, which he said is unconstitutional.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063002289.html